Some news: The Blazers and the city of Portland have reached agreement on a 5-year lease extension for the Moda Center as talks continue around a long-term development project in the Rose Quarter area.
Will be interested to see why ownership transferred back to the city. Not sure if that is just partially or whole.
This seems bad to me. This puts the cost of the Moda renovation on taxpayers. Looking at the lack of renovation to the Memorial Coliseum or even agreement on what to do with it, I don't trust the city to do shit with the Moda. Also, it's pretty much guaranteed that a billionaire will buy the Blazers, this trend of having taxpayers pay for arenas and stadiums for billionaires to house their team or they threaten to move is BS. The Blazers have a strong financial incentive to maintain and improve the Moda. Taking that away from them puts them in a position to demand a new taxpayer-funded arena under threat of moving. "The term sheet for the new agreement, which I have viewed and which will be voted on by the City Council next week, lays out what the sides are calling a “public-private partnership” involving a transfer of the arena from the team to the city and a roadmap to keeping the Moda Center, which is the oldest NBA arena to never undergo a major renovation, viable as a long-term home for the Blazers."
It will be nice when the first (and only) thing the city does is turn the Moda parking garage into bicycles only.
I think it makes it easier for a new ownership group to build a stadium and maybe another team (NHL) comes in to the RG.
The NBA doesn't want to have a team that has been stable for the majority of it's existence, and has been in a city for 50+ years, move. It's not a good look for the league. There's a reason why no team has moved since the Sonics, even tho there has been several teams that should have. not being bogged down by owning the RG makes it easier for the team to build a new one without having a 2nd building to own and sit empty. Yeah, if you're paranoid you'll think it's just to get out of the city...but eventually the RG will need to be replaced. This makes that easier. And then the city can use the RG for stuff like the Winterhawks and other stuff without worrying about conflicts with the Blazers in there.
That's not how it's gone down in a ton of cities in the last 20 years. What's more likely? New owners: "We're going to use our own money to build a new stadium!" or New owners: "The Moda sucks now, if the taxpayers don't pay for a new stadium we will move."
Say bye bye to the VMC and hello to a new stadium for the blazers. Winterhawks then play their games in the RG. To me, that's a winwin.
Why would they have signed a 5 year deal then? To wait 5 *more* years to move? To where, Seattle? And in 5 years?! A lot can happen in 5 years. By that time Seattle should already have a team which would financially benefit the league far more than moving the Blazers would. If they want out, they should have signed an opt out for 2 years. And think about it, does the NBA want to lose one NW team to move it to another NW city? Or lose a solid fanbase (Portland) to move it away from the area (such as Vegas)? Instead of giving Seattle and Vegas expansion teams? The NBA is a lot of things, but being *that* stupid isn't one of them. It makes little sense to do that.n
I agree with the NBA wouldn't want a "stable" Blazers leaving Portland. I have said this for years. But this takes away a huge part of that stability. The city has a horrible track record of owning the MC and developing the area around the Rose Quarter. The Blazers have done a fantastic job of maintaining and improving the Moda Center. But they had a direct financial incentive to do that. Now they won't. Now maintaining and improving the Moda Center falls on the city and taxpayers. Now the next owners of the Blazers can make huge demands under threat of leaving. Just a few days ago I was pointing out that the situation in Portland with the Blazers is very different than the one in Seattle with the Sonics. This changes that.
So what good does the team owning the RG do once they replace it? The 2nd a new arena is done, the RG becomes the MC part deux. Quit being paranoid.
